Safe Online awards $6.7 million to 20 new grantees to advance innovative and high-impact solutions to fight online child sexual exploitation and abuse (CSEA).
In response to the escalating risks children face in the digital world, Safe Online launched a global call for proposals in 2024 to identify and support the most promising solutions.
Following a rigorous selection process from a pool of over 300 applications, 20 grantees have been selected to receive a combined USD 6.7 million in funding – USD 1.7 million more than originally allocated. This significant increase reflects the urgent, growing need to strengthen global efforts to protect children from digital harms. These new projects, from across the world, are designed to deliver maximum impact where it’s needed most
Additionally, recognizing the overwhelming demand and immense needs in the ecosystem, Safe Online is increasing our initial investment of 6.7 million by an additional 8.5 million bringing the total investments for the period 2024-2026 to USD 15 million. This expanded funding will enable us to support more high-impact initiatives and scale up global efforts to create a safe digital future for children
The 20 initiatives announced today represent the first cohort selected through the 2024 Open Call. More projects will be launched in the second half of 2025 and early 2026 through a targeted, invitation-only process, designed to address emerging needs and fill critical strategic gaps.
Our 20 new grantees were selected for their strong focus on innovation and potential for high impact. Each project demonstrates the ability to create new pathways for change and push the boundaries beyond what currently exists. In addition, the selection process prioritized proposals with clear potential for scalability and long-term sustainability, as well as those offering solutions that are interoperable and applicable across different systems and use cases.
Grantees include international organisations, child protection NGOs and CSOs, research, and academic institutions and tech start-ups and include a range of path-breaking projects.
New projects under the ‘Networks and Systems’ pillar will build the foundations of the ecosystem by formalizing mental health care models for frontline professionals working on online CSEA, transforming the response to Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) by testing a new model for survivors’ support, pioneering early intervention strategies to prevent CSAM by targeting individuals at risk of offending and addressing critical gaps in digital regulation enforcement by developing a fair and sustainable redress standard through the child-inclusive, collaborative COR Sandbox.
Projects under the ‘Research and Data’ pillar will generate new evidence and data through child-centric, participatory action research to understand children’s vulnerability to online risks, especially related to non-consensual sharing of private images; online coercion and AI and understand emerging forms of image-based sexual violence against children by exploring experiences of survivors, their parents or caregivers, law enforcement officers, and professionals working with children.
Projects under the ‘Tech Tools’ pillar will design, test, and develop technology solutions that contribute to the broader ecosystem and promote tools that are shareable, adaptable, and enhance efficiency in online CSEA prevention and response efforts. These projects include prototype tools for generating semantic hashes to help law enforcement and trust and safety teams more accurately identify new CSAM; systems to disrupt payments made by offshore offenders to facilitators ; and an automated AI evaluation platform, specialized in assessing CSEA risks, designed to help organizations evaluate the trust and safety risks of their AI models.
This latest investment grows Safe Online’s investment portfolio to USD 100 million with impact in over 100 countries and accelerates Safe Online’s globally important role as a catalyst for innovative and scalable solutions to combat digital harms.
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Recap – Safe digital futures for children: Data for change
In October 2024, the Data for Change community gathered in London for a two-day technical workshop, bringing together over 40 experts from government, tech companies, civil society, and academia. The event focused on strengthening the global data ecosystem for online Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (CSEA) and fostering collaborative solutions to improve the use of data to protect children online.
Meet the new Safe Online visual identity!
We are thrilled to share a major milestone in the journey of Safe Online and our mission of shaping a safer digital world for all children and young people everywhere.
Technological University Dublin
Our grantees Technological University Dublin N-light: An Innovative Application to Uncover Patterns of Online Child Sexual Exploitation Through National Helpline and Hotline Analysis of Caseloads Countries involved:Ireland Through this project, Technological University Dublin will develop a deployable tool that reveals the patterns of adults perpetrating online child sexual abuse and
